CDC fed Facebook unsupported information on COVID-19 vaccines, emails show

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) passed misinformation to Facebook to help it combat COVID-19 misinformation online, emails between the agency and social media giant show.

"Claims that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective for children ages 6 months to 4 years are false and belief in such claims could lead to back vaccine hesitancy," reads a CDC email to the company, the Epoch Times obtained. "COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States are effective at protecting people, including children ages 6 months to 4 years, from getting seriously ill, being hospitalized, and even dying."

The message follows one from a Facebook official asking the CDC to assist in its efforts to monitor claims about vaccine efficacy in children and babies. The Times pointed to comments from the CDC's Dr. Sara Oliver that "[t]he clinical trials [of COVID-19 vaccines] were not powered to detect efficacy against severe disease in young children." The outlet further highlighted the absence of severe cases of COVID-19 in children during the Moderna trials. In Pfizer's tests on children, meanwhile, six of seven cases occurred in vaccinated children, according to the outlet. There is little, if any evidence, from the testing process to support the CDC's message to Facebook.

Facebook has worked in tandem with the CDC to censor unverified claims about COVID-19 and the vaccines against it amid the pandemic. "Thank you so much again for gathering the team to meet with us earlier this week, it was incredibly helpful. Your partnership is critical to us in making sure we can remove false and harmful claims about COVID-19 and vaccines on our platform," wrote one company official in the emails.

The revelations that the CDC sent unsupported information to Facebook during the pandemic comes amid the agency's previous admission that it failed to properly address the spread of the virus and rescinded much of its longstanding guidance on containing it.